Reaching for Stars
by zoranon
Summary: Lucy runs away from home to start her life as a mage in a time where magic is more feared than revered. In this crazy world of adventure she unwittingly ends up at the front of a battle to protect the world from the darkest mage to ever exist. Luckily for her, with her newfound magic and devoted friends at her side, reaching for the stars might not be impossible after all.
1. Welcome to Magnolia

As Lucy snuck along the moonlit corridors lined with important, boring paintings, she felt for the first time that perhaps she had undervalued her strict upbringing as a socialite heiress. After all, without all those lessons on poise and grace, she was sure that stowing away into the night would be significantly more difficult. As it was, she glided silently through the shadows, stepping carefully so as to remain undetected by any rogue servants; if anyone were to see her now, there would be no denying her intentions.

She had donned a casual skirt and top combo that was sure to make her father faint from the sheer impropriety, and and she had a small backpack stuffed with everything a runaway teen could ever need. Y'know, like a few books, a hair brush, an extra pair of socks…

Okay, well, at least she had some Jewels for when she _actually_ needed something. The only thing that really mattered anyway were the keys she kept grasped in her hand so they wouldn't jingle traitorously on her hip.

The stealthy blonde crept down to the first floor and over to a nearby window. There weren't any guards on duty, so she probably could have just opened the front door and walked out, but where's the fun in that?

The night felt different. Above her, the stars twinkled their friendly encouragement, but that didn't stop the nervous ball from forming in her stomach. She'd dreamed about doing this for years, but now that the time had come she was finally realizing just how scary it was to face the world alone. She gulped and looked down at the gleaming keys in her hand.

Dammit, they were right; she was being a coward.

And she wasn't really alone. She was a celestial mage, even if she had no training and could currently only summon a few silver key gates. Her spirits were always watching over her from their place in the heavens. She was determined to learn to summon them all and make contracts with them. The keys she'd inherited from her mother had collected dust for too long!

Sure, it had been hundreds of years since a celestial mage was last able to open one of the zodiac gates, but if there was one thing she'd learned during her tenure as a suppressed debutante it was how to be stubborn.

She would out-stubborn the stars if she had to.

Her resolve more firmly cemented, she stepped into the darkness and disappeared into the night.

Her father wouldn't realize she was gone for two days.

* * *

Lucy couldn't suppress the stupid grin on her face as she stepped into Fiore's capitol: Magnolia.

The new capitol was everything she'd imagined it would be. Bustling with life, the narrow streets were lined with vendors peddling a variety of probably-mostly-legal products. Her eyes were wide as she drank everything in, innocently oblivious to the wolf whistles that followed her down the street. Her keys jingled on her hip, as if they too were excited to be in the city and away from her stuffy mansion.

Magnolia had been designated as the new capitol after Crocus was destroyed in the Black War nearly four hundred years ago. Despite that, people still called it the "new" capitol, as if afraid to let the Flower City of old slip from memory all together. It had been a terrible battle, and a terrible sacrifice that ended the war; it made sense that people feared it be forgotten. However, there was nothing new about Magnolia, its ancient buildings a testament to the long history of her country and very sound architecture practices.

In the distance, Lucy could see the spires of the crystal palace sparkling in the sunlight like a diamond. It hurt her eyes a bit, like looking into the face of god, though she supposed that larger-than-life aspect was part of what kept the nobility alive, especially in times as turbulent as these.

Though Magnolia seemed peaceful and happy, she could feel a dark pulsing under the surface. As a mage herself, she understood well enough. Magnolia had the highest concentration of mages in Fiore, and as mistrusted as the magic users were, that was sure to cause at least a bit of tension with the non-magic locals.

The royal family, of course, tried to pretend everything was okay. Mages were good, they said, and even if they weren't, they were a necessary force in the fight against the demons that wreaked havoc on the world since their master's disappearance. Most people understood that fact even if some didn't care; prejudice doesn't abide by logic. To some, magic and mages were what had started the war to begin with; never mind that Zeref was a sick, sadistic bastard and most mages were decent people.

As a show of solidarity with the magical community after the war, the king had established the Royal Academy of Magic, which, incidentally, was the reason the runaway blonde was here in the first place.

RAM, Lucy liked to call it, was the best school of magic in Fiore, debatably in the world. They had the largest collection of magical books anywhere, which made Lucy salivate at the thought, and top-notch, experienced professors. It was common knowledge that all the best guilds recruited directly from the school, with many students belonging to different guilds before they even graduated.

 _Aah, the guilds~~_

Lucy couldn't wait to find a guild to join. She knew she probably had a rose-tinted understanding of them from her years of daydreaming, but she couldn't help it! The thought of belonging to a magic guild, surrounded by nakama, friends, people like her, made her heart race. Helping people, fighting demons, making the world a better place with her own two hands- _that's_ what she was born to do. Not dance around ballrooms and flirt with the wealthiest man in the room.

Her thoughts were violently interrupted as something very large and very hot slammed into her back, sending her flying towards the ground. She closed her eyes and screamed, bracing for the stony impact of the rough street, but to her relief it never came as an unnaturally warm hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her back up instead.

"I'm sorry! Eek!" a young man's voice said from behind her, but before she could turn to get a good look at him, she was being pulled into a side alleyway and shoved behind a dumpster with a stranger's hot body caging her against the wall, a hot finger across her lips in a frantic attempt to silence her stammered protests.

She looked up to see a young man about her age with shocking pink hair and wild green eyes leering at the entrance of the alley, clearly focusing in on the shouts that could be heard from down the street. She couldn't help but notice he was well built and tall; or at least taller than her, though that wasn't saying too much.

However, her brain finally managed to march past the fact that he was rather attractive to focus on the fact that a stranger was holding her hostage in an alley, and suddenly her stomach dropped. What if he killed her and sold her organs on the black market! She was sure she would die a second time of embarrassment if such a thing were to happen. Everyone had insisted that the city was no place for a young lady of her standing, and she would be damned before she let those nay-sayers be right.

The young man was so distracted tracking the voices beyond the alley that he didn't even notice the blonde shifting into an offensive stance. In fact, he hadn't really noticed her at all and had pulled her with him more by accident than anything. As such, it was quite a surprise when he took a full Lucy Kick straight to the face.

He fell back onto the ground and looked up in shock at the young woman preparing to defend herself. Before he could say anything in his defense, though, the woman began her verbal assault.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, pinky, but I'm not going down without a fight! I'm a celestial mage, and—wait! You're a student at the Royal Academy of Magic!" Lucy said as she finally caught sight of the boy's uniform, her entire demeanor changing in an instant from violent demon wench to adoring fan girl, which wasn't proving to be much less terrifying to the befuddled young man.

"Uh…yeah?" the boy said, confused by her excitement. Most people had a very different reaction to his uniform, but she was looking at him like he was her savior. This girl sure was weird.

"I'm a mage too! Or at least, I will be once I train a bit. I just arrived in Magnolia today I was on my way to the school when I was abducted by some freak, but you're not a freak, you're like me what kind of magic do you do I'm a celestial mage so far I can only open a few silver gates but I inherited a few of the zodiac keys from my mother and one day I hope to be able to open them I know no one has been able to…"

 _Sweet Mavis the girl can talk._ The boy just stared in horror as Lucy kept the conversation going completely one sided, just babbling away to the dumpster for all she seemed to care. He glanced down the alley just in time to see his "friends" catch up with them.

"We gotta go," he said, cutting Lucy's nearly-incoherent monologue short as he grabbed her hand and led her down the alley and into another street.

The blonde barely even registered what was happening as she heard their pursuers calling after them. She let out a little scream and started sprinting.

"Get back here you brats!" one yelled angrily, but the boy just stuck his tongue out at them as they kept running.

"I'm Natsu," he yelled back at her without slowing his pace as they weaved amongst the startled shoppers and tourists. "Welcome to Magnolia!"

The pair raced through the streets like the wind until the shouts behind them faded away. After a few more minutes of twists and turns, angry shouts and ticked off vendors, they finally lost their pursuers and slowed their pace. Natsu let go of Lucy's hand, which was now a bit sweaty from how hot his hand was. She wondered vaguely if he was sick or something.

"I'm Lucy, it's nice to meet you," Lucy said, smiling up at Natsu. "What was all that about? Did you steal something?"

She eyed him suspiciously. It would be just her luck to get instantly entangled with a good-for-nothing thief.

"Of course not! Well, not exactly. I'm a fire dragon slayer, so I eat fire. They had a delicious, blazing fire pit in front of their restaurant and I had a couple bites, which apparently they didn't like. I think it had more to do with the fact I'm a mage than that I stole some of their fire. It's warm out anyway, so it's not like anyone was going to miss it," he pouted.

"That's stupid," Lucy said, but Natsu only shrugged.

"They might tolerate our presence here, but that doesn't mean that everybody is fine with mages. But I'm sure you know all about that."

Lucy nodded, but in truth she didn't know much about it at all. She'd heard that tensions were high, but to chase a boy down because he ate some fire? It seemed excessive to say the least.

"You said you're on your way to the school, right?" Natsu asked amiably.

"Yeah!"

"Then just follow me! I was headed back right now. What year are you?"

"Well, I, uh, haven't exactly enrolled yet."

Natsu stared at her with wide green eyes.

"Really? But classes start tomorrow, don't they? At least that's what Gray said, though I bet he was just trying to trick me so I'd show up all alone, the ice prick."

Lucy waved her hands, hoping to repair this "Gray's" honor.

"No, no, your friend is right! I'm just a little late, that's all. My, uh, dad doesn't exactly know I'm here. He doesn't understand…" Lucy averted her eyes a little, her tone touched with sadness.

Natsu, however, didn't miss a beat.

"That's alright! There's a bunch of people here who don't have families that support them. Some of my friends are orphans, and a bunch others are runaways too. Especially people who are born into a non-magical family. That's why we have guilds, though. We build our own families."

Lucy smiled hopefully at him.

"Thanks, Natsu."

Natsu gaped at her a bit, a light blush spreading across his cheeks while he groped for another topic of conversation.

"Have you thought about what guild you want to join? I'm in Fairy Tail, which is the best guild in Fiore. But I guess Sabertooth isn't too bad since they got rid of their awful master, though I can't believe they let that stupid flashlight take over... We're rivals, though, so don't tell them I said they were okay. Anyway, which guild you join really depends on you. You said you're a celestial mage right? That's pretty rare," he said, seemingly contracting Lucy's word vomit from earlier.

Lucy giggled lightly, glad for the change of subject as they walked briskly through the crowded streets that thinned the further away from the city's entrance they went. He led her through the streets with such ease Lucy didn't know what she'd have done without him.

"Yeah, I'm not very good though. I've never been able to train properly. I inherited some good keys from my mom, but I can't use all of them yet," she said, proudly holding up her key ring and displaying her glittering keys.

"Whoa! I've never seen a zodiac key before. There's only like ten of them, right?" Natsu asked, clearly impressed.

"Twelve, actually. I have five right now. Aquarius, Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, and Cancer, but I'm always looking for more. Of course, I can't actually open their gates yet…"

"No one's done that since the Black War, though, right? I think my Fiorean history teacher said that, anyway. I mean, we have two celestial mages at the academy, but I don't think any of them can open the zodiac gates."

"Yeah… I dream big. Shoot for the stars. Literally," Lucy grinned.

She was fully aware that she was tackling a nearly impossible task, but just being here was much further than anyone thought she'd ever get.

"Well, the academy is the place to start! Maybe Levy can help you find some books on the subject. She spends more time in the library than the librarian."

"That'd be great!" Lucy said, increasingly glad Natsu slammed into her. "So dragon slayer, huh? I didn't think there were any dragons left to slay."

"I was raised by one," Natsu deadpanned and Lucy halted midstep.

"You WHAT?!" she screeched, causing Natsu to rub his ears a little.

"My father, Igneel, he's the one who taught me dragon slaying. He's the fire dragon king, or he was before he disappeared…"

He grabbed at his scarf subconsciously, burying his fingers in its scale-like folds.

"I-I'm sorry, Natsu," Lucy said, suddenly feeling bad for complaining about her father earlier. At least she _had_ a father.

But Natsu just grinned at her.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll find him one day. I mean, he's a dragon. He can't hide forever."

"I didn't know there were any dragons still alive after the war," Lucy said, hoping the subject wasn't too touchy. She was genuinely curious; to her, dragons were just a part of history, almost like legend at this point. To think that they aren't only real, but still alive, was hard to comprehend.

"Well, a bunch were killed in the war. But a few managed to hide away, laying low over the centuries, staying out of trouble, occasionally taking in a lost human or two and training them. There are a few of us at the academy. Sting and Rogue were raised by the light and shadow dragons. That bastard Gajeel was raised by Metalicana, the iron dragon. And Wendy's mother, Grandine, was the sky dragon."

"That's amazing!" Lucy exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, well, all of the dragons disappeared three years ago. We haven't been able to find them since," Natsu said, his enthusiastic tone a bit chipped. "B-but I'm sure we'll find them one day!" he added as Lucy's face fell sympathetically.

Lucy's heart ached for him. She understood loss. Her mother had died when she was young, and in a way she lost her father then too. He'd never been the same after, always strict and demanding, avoiding Lucy like the plague. Lucy thought perhaps it was because she looked so much like her mother that it pained him to look at her. It wasn't fair, but nothing in life really was.

"Yeah," Lucy said, her voice a bit softer now. "I'm sure you will."

They walked for a few more minutes in a comfortable silence. Lucy was still taking everything in, staring all around her at the various shops and homes while mulling over their strange conversation. She still couldn't believe that dragons were still around. It made her dream of opening the zodiac gates seem less impossible somehow.

"Here we are! The Royal Academy of Magic," Natsu said as they walked up to a large, light stone building.

Lucy couldn't help the stupid grin that returned to her face. She was really here. It was almost too much to believe.

The building was beautiful, as she'd always expected; it was built by the royal family after all. It stood proud and intimidating, but also welcoming in a way, its light grey stone almost sparkling in the sun. Large stained-glass windows with images of mages and dragons and demons decorated the walls.

Lucy just stood there, staring at it in awe. She belonged here, she could feel it.

"C'mon! I'll take you to the office," Natsu said, interrupting her staring contest with the heavy front doors. He grabbed her hand again and pulled her forward under the archway.

They walked down the empty halls, their footsteps echoing off the long corridors. Even if Lucy had somehow found the school on her own, she was positive she never would have found the office without Natsu's help. The school was like a labyrinth of rooms and hallways and stairs just waiting for poor, lonesome students to get lost for eternity.

"Here you are," Natsu said cheerfully as they walked up to a room with elaborate double doors: the headmaster's office. Lucy's stomach a somersault as the doors bared down on her. "I've got to go pick up some stuff, but I'm sure I'll see you around!"

"O-of course! I don't want to trouble you any longer," Lucy said quickly. "Thank you so much for all of your help."

"It's no trouble, really," Natsu said, scratching his head and blushing bashfully. "Well, I'll see you later, Luigi."

"It's Lucy!" she yelled at his retreating form, but he just gave her a cheeky smile and a wave back as he skipped off.

"Right," she said, taking a deep, steadying breath. "You can do this, Lucy."

She raised her hand and knocked on the heavy doors.

* * *

 **And that's chapter one! I hope you liked it. If you did, leave a review! If you didn't, still leave a review!  
I'm not going to promise that I'll update with anything resembling punctuality, but I'll do my best. If this goes as planned, it's going to be a loooonnngggg story. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	2. Lucy Starsen

For a moment she wondered if anyone heard her. The doors were so thick she had barely made a sound on them, but a second later came a distant voice telling her to come in.

She pushed open the door into a sparsely decorated but still rather ornate room where a tiny, elderly man with large bushy eyebrows and sat behind an imposing desk. The sight was rather amusing, and Lucy had to suppress the instinct to chuckle.

"Lucy Heartfilia," the man said, and Lucy froze in horror. "I was wondering when we'd see you here."

"I-I-I-I…" Lucy stuttered, unsure of what to say. Day One and her cover was already blown.

"Don't worry, Ms. Heartfilia. I understand your wish for discretion," the man said kindly, though Lucy didn't dare relax just yet. "We've had our eye on you for quite a while. When word got out that you were missing a few days ago, I couldn't help but hope that you were headed here."

"Y-you've had your…eye on me?" Lucy gulped nervously.

"I don't mean to scare you, Ms. Heartfilia, but naturally we've been interested in training a celestial wizard like yourself for some time. It's a rare magic you possess, Lucy. You must guard it well. No doubt all the guilds will be fighting over you," the man chortled slightly before going into a coughing fit.

"But, I'm forgetting my manners. My name is Yajima. I am the headmaster of the academy," the man hopped down from his perch and walked over to where Lucy stood in front of the desk, offering a hand that she shook politely.

"Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you," Lucy returned, her years of manners not so easy to escape.

"Please, have a seat," Yajima said, motioning to some sitting chairs off to the side. "Would you like some tea or snacks? I'm sure you're hungry after your travels."

"Yes, please," Lucy said, realizing that she was, indeed, starving. She nibbled on a small sandwich diplomatically while the tiny man fixed her a cup of tea, which she took gratefully.

"Now then, we have much to discuss," the man said, settling himself into a chair much too large for him. "You have never had any kind of magical training, correct?"

"I'm afraid not," Lucy blushed, slightly embarrassed. She felt rather like a naïve little girl saying she wanted to be a princess when she grew up.

"Hmm… I must admit, Ms. Heartfilia, we rarely get students this late. There are, as I'm sure you know, ten grades that students pass through to graduate. By your age you should be in level eight, but there is some important information in some of the earlier levels that you will require in order to complete your coursework in that grade. However, your magical power, even without training, sets you apart from the younger levels, as indeed your prior education which, excepting magic of course, I'm sure lacks nothing.

"Then there's also the matter of your subject. We have nearly three thousand students at this school, Ms. Heartfilia, and only two, now three, I suppose, celestial mages. There have been no celestial wizards powerful enough to open a zodiac gate in centuries, so I'm afraid we don't have any professors qualified for such training. However…"

He took a sip of tea and studied Lucy quietly.

"Ms. Heartfilia, I'm old, as you've no doubt noticed, and I've only seen a handful of celestial mages in my lifetime, none of which have proven to be able to open the zodiac gates even after decades of training. I tell you this, not to discourage you, but to prepare your expectations realistically. By pursuing your branch of magic, you are setting out on a journey that is, by all current standards, impossible."

"With respect, Mr. Yajima, I understand that," Lucy said and glanced at her keys solemnly. "I inherited these keys from my mother. She was never able to open them, but she always cherished them anyway. She would speak about them like they were her friends…"

She smiled to herself, remembering how her mother used to talk about the keys. She may not have been able to open them, but there had been a connection nonetheless.

"I know it may be impossible, but I'm prepared to do the impossible," Lucy stated, that stubborn determination that defined her so well blazing in her eyes.

Mr. Yajima smiled.

"You are quite an interesting girl, Ms. Heartfilia, I'll give you that," he chuckled.

"Very well, then. You will begin level eight courses with the other students your age. However, you will also have some extra tutoring sessions with some…consultants, if you will. In addition to helping you with your classes, I believe they may be able to help you with your celestial training as well."

The little old man jumped up and walked over to his desk where he started writing some stuff down.

"I'll need to contact them and ensure that they are willing, but I'm sure they will be with some persuasion. You will meet with them for two hours after all of your classes each day in the room I've written here," he said, handing Lucy the slip of paper he'd been scribbling on.

 _That is some terrible handwriting_ , Lucy thought distantly as she read it, wondering who Jellal and Loke were.

"I'm afraid I must ask that you keep this training private for now. Jellal is not exactly on good terms with the school board. Or the magic council. Or the king, for that matter…"

That gave Lucy some pause, but at this point she was willing to take all the help she could get.

"What about my tuition and living expenses?" Lucy asked, breaching a subject that she was not too excited about. "I admit I lack actual skills, but I can learn anything and I'm willing to do whatever it takes—"

"Oh, don't worry about all that dear. Consider it a scholarship from the school," Mr. Yajima said brightly and Lucy's raised her eyebrows.

"Scholarship? But I don't know anything, I hardly deserve a scholarship," she argued against her favor. She was a bit uncomfortable being handed anything she didn't earn. She'd had a whole life of that already.

"Celestial mages are a rare thing, Ms. Heartfilia. We'd hardly want to lose one just because she couldn't afford tuition! No, as long as you keep your grades up and work hard, the school board will be more than happy to foot the bill. Though if it would make you feel better, there are also some part-time jobs around campus that you can take to earn a little extra jewel."

"T-thank you," Lucy said.

It all seemed too good to be true, which in her experience meant it probably was. However, her trusty BS detector could sense no deception from the kind old man; he seemed genuinely excited to have her there. She decided she'd keep her guard up, but accept the favors all the same. After all, she really couldn't afford all of this on her own.

"Which brings me to my last point," the man said, his cheerful demeanor sobering a bit. "I'm sure you know all about the guilds by now. With such rare magic as yours, you will undoubtedly be the center of attention until you pick one. I would advise you, however, to choose carefully. There are some guilds, dark guilds to be sure, that are obsessed with opening the Eclipse gate. You've heard of it?"

"That's what Zeref disappeared though at the end of the war," Lucy answered. Mr. Yajima nodded solemnly.

"The gate is opened by celestial magic. No one has been powerful enough to open it in years, it would be difficult even for a mage who could open the zodiac gates to do so alone. Nonetheless, you must keep your guard up against those who would seek to use your power to summon the black mage again."

Lucy's jaw nearly dropped.

"I-is that possible?!"

"We can't be sure, as no one has yet accomplished it, but in theory it could happen. We have no idea what was on the other side of that gate when it closed. For all we know, Zeref is just biding his time until his followers can open it again. Dark guilds and demons alike have been searching for celestial mages in an attempt to open the gate. Therefore, your discretion and good judgment will be a crucial part of choosing a guild.

"This is likely not the first time you've heard it, and it will not be the last, but your guild will be your family. Especially among mages who too often find themselves ostracized from society, a guild is where one can feel that they truly belong. I would encourage you to let that sense of belonging be your guide."

"Of course, sir," Lucy said, still a bit stunned. She never knew that her power could be used for such darkness, and the thought gave her chills.

"I believe we will see great things from you, Ms. Heartfilia," Mr. Yajima said with a kind smile as he handed her some more papers.

"Take this to the office at the end of the hall. They'll make you a student ID, which can be used to pay for all of your expenses. You should be able to find everything you'll need on campus, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. The competition between guilds is a fierce one, but in the end I think you'll find true mages are always willing to help each other out."

"Thank you, sir. For everything," Lucy said, hoping he could appreciate just how grateful she truly was.

"Think nothing of it, my dear," he said, returning to his desk and whatever he'd been working on before she knocked.

Lucy turned to leave, but paused as she reached the door.

"Sir?" she asked timidly.

"Hmm?"

"I was hoping that, perhaps, we could keep my presence here…well… secret. From my father. I-I'm afraid that if he finds me… he'll force me to leave," she said.

"I figured as much, which is why I hope you won't mind that I may have misspelled your name a bit," he said with a conspiratorial smirk as Lucy looked down at the enrollment papers.

 _Lucy Starsen._

A smile worked its way across her face. She liked it. She grinned widely up at the headmaster silently before exiting the room, her heart full to the brim with excitement and possibility.

Lucy Heartfilia was the weak heiress of the past.

Lucy Starsen would be the greatest celestial mage of her time.

She marched down the hall, head held high, and eyes lit, ready for the challenges that awaited her with a smile she felt might never fade.

* * *

 **I promise it'll get more exciting after this, but you have to have a good foundation to build a story on.**

 **As always, I encourage you to leave a review and tell me what you think. ^.^**


	3. First Day of School

**Hey guys! Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave me a review. ^_^**

* * *

When Lucy's alarm went off, she was already showered, dressed, and groomed, nibbling sparingly at her breakfast. She wasn't sure if she was excited or nervous; they felt like the same thing to her. After another unsatisfying bite of toast, she settled for a cup of coffee to-go. With her new backpack slung over her shoulder full of her new books she left her new apartment in her new uniform and headed off to her new school at a forced stroll.

In truth, she was so pent up with nervoxcitement she wanted to sprint to the academy, but that was hardly the entrance she wanted to make.

This was technically her first day of school. Ever. She'd always been tutored at her mansion before, never getting to make friends the way she'd read about in books. Perhaps she would make a fool of herself in front of everyone, but the feeling was overwhelmed by the pure joy that at least she had that chance for once. She _could_ make a fool of herself because for once in her life she wasn't alone, locked up in her ivory tower. It was a hard feeling to describe, though she would sure give it a try in her journal later.

First, though, she had to find her classes.

She had barely slept a wink last night. The last 24 hours had been the most intense of her life. Every little thing felt like a new adventure: finding her apartment, trying on her uniform, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, burning dinner, trying to eat her burnt dinner, giving in and going out to eat because her burnt dinner was disgusting. It was all so exhilarating!

She could only imagine what her father would say about all of this.

She smirked to herself. That's right. She _could_ only imagine because he wasn't here to spoil it for her.

Perhaps the most exciting thing, though, had been looking through all her school materials, books and pamphlets and syllabi, which she had memorized already. The syllabi, not the books. She wasn't _that_ good.

Her classes looked so interesting!

First was general magic, where she'd learn about all the different types of magic, how magic works, and all that good stuff. She was a bit nervous for that one since she knew she'd be leagues behind everyone else, but she'd always been a fast learner. Then she had complete Fiorean history, which she already knew most about, though her tutors had selectively minimized the role of mages in the history a considerable degree. Then she had—

"Hey Luce!" a voice interrupted her thinking and she turned to see Natsu jogging towards her from across the street, cutting off a number of grumbling pedestrians as he went.

"Natsu! It's good to see you!" Lucy said as he approached. "Thank you so much for all of your help the other day. I don't know what I'd have done without you." She beamed at him and Natsu blushed slightly.

"Really, it was no problem. I'm glad everything worked out. You look great in your uniform. I mean, the uniform looks great. Not that you don't, you also look great. Better. You just in the uniform look—" Natsu turned slightly redder with each word that flew out of his traitorous mouth. It was like falling down a flight of stairs, just gaining momentum as he went, until it was suddenly (and gratefully) cutoff by another voice.

"Yo, flame-brain. You ran out so fast you forgot your bag. Not like you to actually be on time for—oooh."

Another boy with unruly black hair walked up behind Natsu with a satisfied smirk spreading across his face as he spotted the pretty blonde his roommate was conversing with, as well as just how red said roommate was.

 _Oh this is good_.

"Give me that," Natsu grumbled, his face almost on fire as he grabbed his bag from his smug roommate. He turned to march in the direction of the school.

Lucy giggled at his antics and how his face matched his hair. She didn't think herself vain and didn't spend an inordinate amount of time on her appearance, but she was aware from her years being shoved at every wealthy, eligible gentleman in Fiore that she was considered "pretty" by most in society. Except that Duke Everloo fellow she still held a grudge against.

"Great manners, ashtray," the roommate grumbled, turning to Lucy. "I'm Gray, the poor bastard that has to share an apartment with that dumpster fire. You must be Lucy. Natsu wouldn't shut up about you."

Ahead of them, Lucy could see Natsu duck his head even further in embarrassment and she smiled.

"I doubt I'm that interesting. I just enrolled yesterday. Natsu helped me find the school, after dragging me into his runaway heist."

"That was an accident! And they were overreacting in the first place," Natsu yelled at them over his shoulder and Lucy giggled again, which Natsu's sharp dragon ears heard perfectly. She had such a pretty laugh…

"Well I'm sorry that he was the first person you had to meet here," Gray said.

"What you sayin' about me, ice princess?" Natsu growled.

"I'm apologizing for you, ash-wipe," Gray returned, slamming his forehead against Natsu's antagonizingly.

"I wouldn't happen to hear you two fighting, would I?" came another voice and both boys froze in fear.

"Of course not!" they said in unison, with matching shaky laughs as an intimidating redhead walked over to them with a dangerous glint in her eye.

The girl— _woman_ —walked over to them with a posture that suggested she was used to wearing something a little heavier than her school uniform. She turned her glare from the boys to Lucy, who didn't dare breathe for fear of incurring her wrath as well. However, at the sight of the blonde, the redhead's frown lightened up, not quite into a smile, but certainly an approving gaze.

"Natsu, aren't you going to introduce your friend here?" the woman asked, the danger in her tone making the pinkette in question jump slightly.

"E-Erza, this is Lucy, she's new here. Lucy, this is Erza. She's grade ten, also a member of Fairy Tail, a requip mage, possibly a demon, we're not sure yet," he teased, leaping out of the way as a sword from nowhere suddenly slashed at his former location.

"Lucy is a celestial mage," he continued, almost like he was bragging.

"C-celestial, you say?" Erza said, and Lucy took a step back at the greedy look in her eye. "Not too many of those around," the requip mage continued. "You wouldn't happen to have your sights set on any guild in particular, would you?"

"Really, Erza? She just got here. At least let her enter the school before you try recruiting her," Gray said as they neared the gates of the academy.

"Are you also a member of Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked Gray.

"Yup," he said pointing to the dark guild mark on his chest. His bare chest. Where had his shirt gone? "It's a good guild, strong, reliable, a bit…rough around the edges."

"That's putting it lightly," Natsu scoffed. Lucy raised an eyebrow in question, but Natsu just waved her off. "You'll just have to come to the guild sometime and see for yourself."

"Gray, your shirt," Erza said, sounding somewhere between reprimanding and bored as she held out the forsaken piece of fabric. Gray simply took it without question, as if this happened often.

"What grade are you?" Gray asked as he re-donned his shirt.

"Eight. Though I'll be having private tutoring sessions after school each day since I've never trained before," Lucy said.

"We're in grade eight as well!" Natsu said enthusiastically. "Maybe we'll have some of the same classes. If you ever need help, I'm always available."

"Who're you going to help, hothead? You barely pass your classes as it is," Gray sneered.

"Hey, I was number one in magical combat last year, ice prick," Natsu returned, flames jumping into his hands.

"Of course you'd offer to help Lucy with her _physical_ training-"

At that Natsu growled and lunged for Gray, who was preparing his own magic as well, but neither had the chance to attack as both were soon on the ground with welts on their head while Erza — Mavis bless her — , was just putting away her sword.

"Please ignore them, Lucy. They're idiots," she said, and Lucy was sure her face was still glowing red from Gray's comment. "Unfortunately our guild master won't let me remove their tongues, though I continue to argue they do nothing of worth with them."

Lucy laughed nervously as the roommates peeled themselves off the ground.

"You should get to your classes, I expect they'll be starting soon," she said before marching off.

A chill ran down Lucy's spine as she glanced back at the withered mages stumbling to their feet.

"I'm going to find Juvia before I die," Gray muttered, wobbling off into the distance.

"Well, that was Erza," Natsu said, rubbing his head with a grimace.

"Is everyone in Fairy Tail so…" Lucy trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence, but Natsu seemed to understand what she meant.

"Not everyone, but pretty much. We're glad to have her on our side, I can say that much," he said. "So what's your first class?"

"I have general magic."

"Aww, I have elementals," Natsu said, a bit disappointed. "I'll walk you there anyway. Maybe we'll have something together later! Let me see your schedule."

After a bit of comparison, the pair discovered that they did indeed have three of their eight classes together: Fiorean History, Magical Combat, and Herbology and Potions.

"Cool, we have combat together!" Natsu smiled excitedly. "Gray was kinda right, fighting's about the only thing I'm good at."

"I'm sure that's not true," Lucy said encouragingly. "You're also good at running away from people."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, Erza's right, I'm going to be late if I don't leave soon. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, see ya!"

Lucy watched Natsu dash down the hall to his class. She turned to look at the door of her own classroom they'd arrived at. She took a deep breath before walking into the room.

The classroom was small but busy with students hanging out and talking to each other before classes began. It was like an overstuffed birdcage, and about as loud as one. Lucy walked over to an empty seat in the front row, ignoring the curious stares she attracted.

"You must be new!" the girl next to her said. She had short blue hair held back haphazardly by a headband and was so small she reminded Lucy of a pixie. She seemed nice enough, though, and Lucy returned her smile.

"Yeah, I'm Lucy," she said, extending a hand.

"It's nice to meet you! I'm Levy, a script mage. What kind of magic do you do?"

Lucy felt she would never get tired of that question. Each time it was asked was a reminder that she was surrounded by people like her, and it made her heart all warm and squishy.

"Celestial," Lucy said with a smile.

"Like the gates? That's really cool! Yukino is also a celestial mage," she said, turning to look at a white-haired girl across the room. "Hey, Yukino!" she called, and the girl in question walked over.

"What's up?" the girl, Yukino, asked.

"This is Lucy. She's a celestial mage like you," Levy said, and Yukino's mouth dropped.

"S-seriously?!" She looked at Lucy, as if trying to figure out whether or not she looked like a celestial mage, whatever that might mean. Lucy smiled nervously, but offered her hand nonetheless.

"Nice to meet you," Lucy said as Yukino finally pulled herself together and shook her hand with an excited smile.

"Waah! That's so cool! I've never met another celestial mage besides my sister before! Do you have any of the zodiac gates? I've got Libra and Pisces, and my sister's got Gemini, Scorpio, and Aires. We can't open them, obviously, but they're nice to have anyway."

Lucy was about to respond when the teacher entered demanding order and began the lecture.

* * *

The rest of the day was pretty much like the first part of it, and by the time she'd come to her last class, magical combat, she was exhausted.

Word of her being a celestial mage had spread like wildfire, and soon everyone was introducing themselves to her, along with their guild names and why she should join them instead of everyone else.

 _Hi, I'm Lyon. Join Lamia Scale._

 _Hi, I'm Beth. Join Mermaid Heel._

 _Hello gorgeous, I'm Hibiki. Have you heard of Blue Pegasus?_

It made Lucy feel very strange, particularly because she couldn't even really do anything with her celestial magic yet except for summon a cute little dog named Plue that looked less like a dog and more like a snowman…

Angel, Yukino's elder sister, had been quick to mock her for her inexperience, but Yukino was more encouraging. After all, even they couldn't summon anything besides the silver gates with years of training.

She'd been so surrounded by people all day that she hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to Natsu again. Something about the fact that she'd met him before all this commotion made her feel more comfortable with him. He treated her more like a friend and less a piece of meat he wanted to recruit for Fairy Tail.

Though, make no mistake, he was still determined to recruit her to Fairy Tail, even if his reasons were a bit more personal than just we-want-a-celestial-mage.

So when she entered the gymnasium for her combat class, she was glad to find him waiting for her by the door, eager to snatch her up before someone else did again.

"Hey!" he said casually, smiling at her as she entered. Both of them were already changed into their work-out clothing for class, and Lucy couldn't help but notice how muscular he was or the way his sweatpants hugged his hips…

She blushed violently and shook her head.

 _Bad Lucy._

"Hey!" she returned happily, hoping he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Luckily for her, he was too busy taking in her own outfit to notice anything else.

"H-how were your classes? I tried to sit next to you, but you were rather popular, as expected," he said, wrenching his mind out of the gutter. Well, most of it, at least.

"They were good. I'm glad I'll be having tutoring sessions, though, since I'm definitely behind on a bunch of things. I didn't even know all the different classifications of magic! It's kind of embarrassing…"

"Don't be silly! You can't be expected to know that kind of stuff if no one's ever taught you before," Natsu said sympathetically.

"Yeah, Natsu's been taking these classes for years and he still doesn't know anything. _That's_ embarrassing," came a haughty voice from behind them.

They turned to see a tall blonde guy Lucy had seen in a number of her classes today hanging around Yukino. Behind him was an equally tall boy with black hair and red eyes that scared Lucy a bit. She'd never seen anyone with red eyes before.

"You wanna say that to my face, flashlight?"

"I think I just did," the blonde said with a smirk before turning to Lucy. "Sting Eucliffe," he said, taking her hand and kissing it with a sneer at Natsu, who looked like he was about to burst into flames which, Lucy realized belatedly, was entirely possible.

"This is Rogue," he indicated back to the shadowy man behind him who offered only a curt nod of the head. "We're both members of the premier guild in Fiore, Sabertooth."

"Pshh," Natsu said. "Bullshit, Fairy Tail could take you down any day."

"You wanna go, fairy?" Sting mocked, crouching down and ready to strike.

"Boys, save it for class," their coach said as she walked up to Lucy.

"You must be Ms. Starsen?" she asked, her dark brown eyes sizing Lucy up as the girl nodded. "I'm Coach Shae. The headmaster has informed me that you have no combat training, right?"

Lucy flushed and nodded, not appreciating the reminder of how weak she was.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're here to learn, right?"

"O-of course!"

The coach flashed her an encouraging smile. "Then that's all that matters. This is magical combat, but in truth, not all types of magic are suited for combat. Therefore, I'll be pairing you up with students who focus more on weapons training and exercises, though you'll also be participating in training to increase your magical capacity.

"It seems you already know Mr. Dragneel here. Natsu, as last year's top student I'd like you to help Lucy with the basics. Can you do that?"

"Of course, Coach!" Natsu beamed.

"Right, I'll leave you to it," she said, turning to the rest of the class. "Everyone else, pair up and start warm-ups."

"C'mon, Luce," Natsu said, tugging her over to a storage room Lucy soon discovered was full of weapons of all kinds. Swords, maces, fighting sticks…whips.

Lucy timidly picked up one of the whips. A character in a novel she loved as a kid was an adventurer who always had a whip. Lucy had always wanted to be like her, brave and adventurous, exploring the unknown. The weapon in her hand was heavier than she expected, its leather coil like a snake, waiting to bite.

"That seems like a good choice for you," Natsu said as he watched her practically caress the weapon.

"W-what does that mean!" Lucy stuttered, turning bright red as she remembered some other _recreational_ uses for the weapon. Not that _she_ was into that stuff.

Fortunately the reference seemed to go right over Natsu's head.

"Nothing! It just seems like a good fit, that's all. C'mon, let's try it out," he said, flouncing back into the gym, Lucy on his tail.

* * *

By the end of the class, Lucy was exhausted. She'd felt like a complete fool the whole time, fumbling around as she tried to imitate Natsu's stances and strikes. He had insisted that she was doing well for a beginner, but she couldn't help but feel that he was just humoring her. Still, as silly as she'd felt, she'd never had so much fun in her life! Natsu was an enthusiastic teacher, and surprisingly patient for someone so spirited. He was also clearly very strong, and Lucy was interested to see him go all out.

As she changed back into her uniform, she felt ready to take a nap, but she knew it would have to wait. She still had her extra tutoring to attend, which she felt anxious about. The way Yajima spoke about this "Jellal" character made Lucy a bit suspicious, but after seeing how far behind she really was, she didn't care if he was Zeref re-incarnated.

She grabbed her bag and walked out of the locker room, to find Natsu waiting for her. He perked up as he saw her and gave her a wide grin.

"Hey, Luce!"

"What's up?" she asked.

"Well, I was about to head over to Fairy Tail, and just wondered if you wanted to come with me? I'm not saying you have to join or anything, but it'll be fun! Mira makes these awesome milkshakes, and—"

"I'm sorry, Natsu, I can't," Lucy interrupted before he got too excited. "I have my tutoring to go to today. Actually, I have it every day…"

"Oh..." the pink-haired boy said, clearly deflated.

"B-but it's only for two hours, so maybe I can come by afterwards sometime this week," Lucy said.

"Yeah! Maybe tomorrow?" Natsu asked hopefully.

"Tomorrow sounds good," Lucy smiled.

Natsu tried to ignored the loud thumping in his chest. "G-great! I'll see you tomorrow then. Good luck!"

He set off down the hallway, glancing back every few steps to wave. Lucy giggled as he almost ran into someone's open locker, her chest welling with happiness that she, for the first time in her life, had a friend.


	4. The Kitchen Thief

Lucy smiled as she watched Natsu disappear around the corner before she reached into her bag and pulled out the note Yajima had written for her the day before.

"Room 00A…" she muttered to herself, wondering where exactly that was.

She wandered around nearly the whole building before she finally found it: a large, dark, empty room underneath the school that almost looked like a dungeon, though not as cold and dank.

"The basement? Really?" she asked herself.

"Less chance of someone walking in on us," a deep voice said behind her, making her jump out of her skin and into the ceiling with an undignified yelp.

"W-who's there?" she asked, spinning around to see a cloaked man with shaggy blue hair and a strange, scarlet tattoo over one eye. He looked a few years older than herself, with a darkness in his eyes that spoke of a strained past. It wasn't hard at all for her to imagine a man like this in trouble with the law.

"Apologies, Ms. Heartfilia. I'm Jellal Fernandez, I'll be tutoring you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Loke will meet you here tomorrow."

He offered her his hand and she shook it nervously. He seemed nice enough.

"O-oh. Well, nice to meet you!" Lucy said, with a cheery grin.

"Likewise. For today, I'd like to run through all your classes and get a feel for where you are. Loke will focus more on your training as a celestial mage, and I'll be covering everything else," he said, leading her over to a table in the corner.

"Right," Lucy said. "So, what kind of magic do you do?"

"My specialty is heavenly body magic, which, like celestial magic, has a strong connection to the stars. I can use astronomical properties to my advantage: light, gravity, and the like. However, unlike your magic, mine is caster as opposed to holder."

"Oh," Lucy said, not sure exactly what that meant.

"Now, Yajima has informed me that you have no magical training, is that correct?" he asked, getting right down to business.

"Ah, I'm afraid so… I mean, I summoned a little dog spirit today, b-but it wasn't very powerful or anything…"

"Never be ashamed of being a beginner; it means that you're learning. The only shame is in not learning." He gave her a hard look, imploring her to set aside her insecurities. "Reluctance to fail will only hinder your learning process."

"R-right," Lucy said with a weak smile, slightly intimidated by his intensity.

"Now, show me what you did today," he said. "Since you have a block schedule, we'll go over tomorrow's classes on Wednesday."

"Okay," she said, pulling her books out of her bag, ready to start.

* * *

Lucy was positively enraptured. Jellal explained to her about the magic council – which he seemed to know much more about than he probably should have – and a bit about magical law. However, since she was already taking Intro to Magical Law, he didn't find it necessary to go into too much detail, just giving her the basics that apparently "everybody" knew.

Then he reviewed what they'd gone over in her General Magic class, explaining some terms and concepts she'd struggled with earlier. He explained about the different types of magic. As he went through each type, she couldn't help but think back to the people she'd met throughout the day. The two of them were categorized as astronomical mages, while someone like Gray was an elemental caster magician. Natsu was also an elemental caster, but his dragon slaying abilities put him in a slightly different category. Even Jellal didn't seem to know much about dragon slaying, which only made Lucy more curious.

As their session together came to an end, Lucy was infinitely grateful to have Jellal as a tutor. He was good at explaining things to her and always made sure she understood everything before moving on. Luckily, her years of private tutoring had left her proficient in reading, writing, math, and history, so only the magical subjects needed improvement, and even then, she picked up everything quickly. It helped that she was completely fascinated by every little morsel of information.

Their two hours seemed to breeze by, and soon Lucy was headed back to her apartment. She walked slowly through the Magnolia streets she had begun to memorize, waving to shop owners and taking in the colors the sun was beginning to cast upon the sky as it slowly made its way to the horizon. Most people were friendly enough to wave back, though she couldn't help but notice the suspicious glares some gave her because of her uniform. It made her sad to think that there was still such resentment toward mages, despite the fact that the black mage had been vanquished for centuries now.

She entered her apartment building, stopping briefly to speak with her land lady who spent most of the conversation loudly reminiscing about "when I had legs like that". Once she was finally safe in her apartment, she had to resist the urge to immediately crash on the couch and into a deep sleep from which she may or may not ever wake. Instead, she forced herself to go into the kitchen and give cooking another try.

After an hour, two cuts, and three burns later, Lucy finally sat down with something resembling food. It was no culinary masterpiece, to be sure, but it was edible. Lucy beamed at her creation before digging in, too hungry to care about its questionable taste.

Even as she ate all alone, she couldn't help the smile on her face. She'd never felt so independent before! Back at the mansion there were servants who did every single little thing for her. She knew they meant well, but she much preferred doing things for herself.

The thought of home brought thoughts of her father…

She hadn't heard any news, but she was sure he was looking for her. Deep down she felt an ache at the thought of him. She missed him, but she wasn't naïve enough to think that the man waiting at home was the one she really missed. She missed who he used to be, before her mother had…

She shook her head to clear the negative thoughts. She couldn't change the past. It was already behind her, no reason to dwell.

She went to the kitchen to clean up her (considerable) mess before drawing a hot bath and sinking into its burning embrace. She sighed, letting the hot water wash away any doubts she had. She was on her way to becoming a fully-fledged mage; there was no room for doubt anymore.

When she started feeling dizzy from the hot water, she wrapped herself in a fluffy, white towel and walked over to her bedroom. She reached to open her underwear drawer, only to find that it was already open, and a blue, furry cat was digging around in it. She froze in confusion as the cat turned around to look at her.

"How'd you get in here, little guy?" she said, mostly to herself, as she stared at the out-of-place, fuzzy creature.

"We came in through the window!" the cat replied casually, causing Lucy to let out an ear splitting scream as she instinctively punched it across the room.

"Whas wong?!" a voice from behind her said, and Lucy turned in horror to see Natsu standing in her doorway, his mouth stuffed with remnants of her mediocre dinner.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!" Lucy screeched, clutching her towel around her tightly.

"Natsu and I were on our way to get some fish when smelled you," the cat said from the corner.

"AND WHY CAN THE CAT TALK?!"

"Cat?" Natsu said as he swallowed. "Happy's not a cat. He's an Exceed."

"And why exactly is an _Exceed_ going through my underwear drawer?" she asked testily.

"That's underwear? I thought they were parachutes," Happy snickered, and Lucy sent him a death glare.

"Watch it, kitty," she said before rounding on Natsu. "And you still haven't explained why you are in _my apartment_."

"Like Happy said, I picked up your scent and wanted to see where you lived!" Natsu said cheerily, as if it was a completely normal thing to do.

"And so you thought you'd break in?"

"Well, the window was open, so…"

Lucy smacked herself in the face. What was wrong with these two?

"Can I at least put on some clothes?" she asked after a deep breath, causing Natsu to glance down at her towel. Instantly his face turned bright pink, as if he hadn't noticed her state of undress before.

"Oh, uh, r-right. Happy, c-c'mon," he said, quickly turning and vacating the room.

Lucy shook her head, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into by befriending the strange dragon slayer.

She put on some pajamas before finding her two intruders helping themselves to the scant contents of her kitchen. She sighed, using all of her remaining willpower not to Lucy Kick them back out the window they came through.

"So, please again explain why you decided to break into an unsuspecting girl's apartment so late at night?" Lucy said.

"Geez, Luce, when you say it like that… Happy and I were just on our way to get some more fish since we ran out, and I caught your scent, so I decided to see where you live. Make sure it's, y'know, safe and everything," Natsu said as he rummaged shamelessly through her fridge.

"Oh yeah, totally safe. Except from freaks that want to climb through my window, apparently," Lucy said, her mouth bitter with sarcasm.

"Heh, sorry about that. But, for the record, your window was already open, so it's not like we actually broke anything. I mean, Happy almost knocked over your vase, b-but I caught it!" he said, stuttering at Lucy's unamused glare.

"And what do you mean you could smell me? I don't stink…" she pouted.

"Of course you don't stink! It's a dragon thing," Natsu explained as he opened up a bag of chips Lucy had been looking forward to. "We slayers have heightened senses. Hearing, smelling, seeing. Tasting maybe? And what's the last one….oh! Touching. Hmm…I don't know if we can feel any better than anyone else. Not that useful of a skill for a dragon to have…"

As Natsu began to muse to himself the practicalities of heightened touch senses, Lucy marched over and grabbed her precious bag of chips out of his hand.

"Would you stop eating my food!" she snapped.

"Oh…Sorry, Luce. We're kind of hungry. Like I said, we ran out of fish," Natsu said bashfully, eyeing the bag of greasy goodness lustfully.

"Where were you going to buy fish at this time of night anyway?"

"Oh we weren't going to buy it. We were going fishing!" Happy interjected as he flew onto Natsu's head.

 _Wait, flew?!_

"Fishing? But it's dark—y'know what, I'm not even going to ask," Lucy decided.

Natsu just stood there awkwardly glancing around the place for a moment. It was so…Lucy. Very simply decorated but still lively. And the whole place was full of her delightful scent…

"Fine! You can have my leftovers, but then you have to leave!"

"Aye sir!" the cat and man said in unison before turning to invade her kitchen once more.

"So, what do I smell like?" Lucy asked, still stuck on the whole I-could-smell-you thing.

"Hm?" Natsu hummed, his face full of food.

"You said you found me by my scent…what do I smell like?"

The dragon slayer gulped loudly before tilting his head as if thinking.

"It's hard to describe a smell. I guess you kind of smell like vanilla but…muskier? Sweet but not too sweet. I dunno, you smell like Lucy. It smells really good."

The girl in question tried fruitlessly not to blush, not that anyone noticed anyway by the way the two of them were stuffing their faces. Finally, when the last remnants of her food were but legends for her cupboards to pass down through the ages, the unexpected visitors climbed back out the window and into the night despite Lucy's insistence that they be normal people and use the door.

"See you tomorrow, Luce!" Natsu called from below much too loudly.

"Shh! Go away!" she whisper-shouted at them, shooing them off. He gave her one last intoxicating smile and a wave before disappearing down the street.

Lucy shut and locked her window and turned back to her now empty-feeling apartment, wondering how it was that it hadn't felt this empty before. She shrugged, blushing slightly as she thought again about Natsu's "smell" comment and sniffing at her arm. Unfortunately, she seemed immune to her own scent, only able to smell the strawberry scented body wash she'd used in her bath.

Suddenly she yawned widely as the whole day came crashing down on her in a wave of swooning exhaustion. She turned off all the lights and stumbled over to her bed, climbing into the warm, awaiting covers and drifting off to sleep. As the day faded to black, she couldn't help thinking that if every day were like this one, she'd be the happiest woman in the world.


	5. Of Pink-Haired Imbeciles

**Happy Holidays! I hope everyone is well and warm. ^_^**

 **As always, I encourage you to leave a review and tell me what you think! This story is so much more innocent than I normally entertain, but it's fun to write, so I hope you like it.**

* * *

Much to Lucy's pleasure, the next day was quite reminiscent of the one before it. She headed out to school early, not nearly as nervous as she'd been the first day, meeting Natsu and his roommate along the way. The pair of them grumbled at each other before being broken apart by Erza who practically dragged them into the school. Lucy then went off – ignoring Natsu's cries for help in the distance – to talk with Levy before her first class. The bluenette, it turned out, was almost even more enthusiastic about books than she was, and already they had started making plans to form a book club.

Her first two classes were non-magical, but it seemed that all of Jellal's tutoring had helped with more than her classes. Even just the conversations between students often relied on a basic understanding of magic and the magical world she'd never been privy to before. Luckily, the tutoring seemed to pay off a bit. She was still far behind everyone else, but all in all she was feeling much more confident than she had the day before, and at the very least much less lost.

At lunch Natsu sniffed her out and dragged her to sit with him and a bunch of other members of Fairy Tail, despite the protests of other guilds who wanted the celestial mage to themselves. Lucy, however, didn't mind. She was too happy to have any friends at all to be particularly choosey, and the rambunctious guild already felt like a good fit. She smiled to herself as she took a bite of her sandwich, thinking that she was finally beginning to understand the term "nakama".

 _SPLAT._

Lucy's sweet smile curdled into something foul as she scraped some kind of unidentifiable food substance off of her face. Her eyes scanned the fear-frozen crowd to land on the culprit: a certain pink-haired imbecile.

"It's Gray's fault! He moved!" Natsu quickly defended, pointing frantically at the ice-make mage who shot him a glare in return.

"My fault? You're the one who threw it!"

"Yeah, but I didn't throw it _at_ Lucy. It's your fault it hit her!"

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you threw it!"

"Would you two shut up!" Lucy yelled, wiping the rest of the food off her face with a napkin generously provided by Levy.

"Aye sir!" they said in unison, fearful of the Erza-like spirit the celestial mage had taken on.

Lucy sighed heavily before picking up her books to head to her next class, with Levy quick on her tail.

"So, how are you liking Magnolia so far?" the solid-script mage asked her.

"Besides the obscene amount of flying food, I love it here," Lucy said with a contagious smile that belied her joy. "Though some pinked-haired moron broke into my apartment last night."

"Natsu?" Levy asked with a chuckle.

"Him and that blue cat of his. They ate up all of my food before I finally managed to shove them out the window."

Levy smiled conspiratorially. "I think he likes you," she said teasingly.

"Is that what people do when they like someone? Climb through their window and clear out their kitchen?" Lucy asked quite seriously with a quirked eyebrow. If so, she was rather glad to have never had such an enthusiastic suitor before.

Levy laughed. "Well, _no_ , not a normal person. But it sounds like something Natsu would do if he liked someone. At least, he must like you to feel comfortable enough climbing in your window."

"That's absurd, Levs. We're just friends. Besides, I barely know the guy, how could he possibly like me already?"

"It only take a few seconds to make a first impression which can determine the entire relationship between two people." Levy spoke so confidently that Lucy was sure she was almost directly quoting from a book.

"That seems a bit upsetting, only having a few seconds to prove yourself. Besides, he ran into me and dragged me behind a dumpster. Not exactly the best first impression," Lucy argued, blushing slightly as she remembered those first moments, him pressed up against her indecorously as they hid from his pursuers.

"I'm just saying, Natsu's never shown the slightest interest in anyone til he met you. Poor Lisanna's been trying to catch his eye for years now with no luck, and then you come waltzing in and suddenly he's climbing through your window," Levy said with a nudge.

Lucy's heart started to race at the thought of the dragon slayer liking her. She'd never had anybody like her before. Sure, they had been _suitors_ , but nobody who liked her simply for being her. The more she thought about it, the more nervous it made her. All she knew of dating was arranged marriages based on financial assets or political benefit. She knew nothing about boys or relationships or love… She shook her head to get rid of the thought, which refused to disappear entirely.

"Are we even talking about the same guy? I mean, this is the boy who just threw his lunch in my face," Lucy reasoned, increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of Natsu as a boyfriend. He was the first friend she made her, and – don't tell Levy – her best friend so far. She hated the idea of anything happening to that friendship. Or even worse, what if he was only friends with her because he thought she was pretty and wanted more? The thought made her sad.

"He threw it at Gray," Levy clarified, as if it really made a difference.

"Still…this is only my second day here. I'm sure he'll get tired of me soon enough," Lucy said, suddenly feeling a bit deflated. _Even my own father got tired of me…_

Levy was quiet for a moment, a bit saddened that Lucy seemed to think she was some kind of special attraction everyone would tire of in time. "Natsu's not that kind of guy," she finally said. "And besides, it's not completely crazy. You're pretty and smart and really nice! And I'm pretty sure half the guys at this school already have a crush on you."

Lucy's face turned bright red. "W-what are you talking about?!"

"Oh, c'mon, Lu-chan," Levy said with a smirk. "Surely you notice how none of these guys can keep their eyes off of you. Well, except Freed, but he's gay so it doesn't count."

Lucy's skin settled for a light (and possibly permanent at this point) blush as she started to notice the varying degrees of lecherous eyes that followed her down the hall.

"M-maybe they're staring at you! It's impossible to know," Lucy said, hoping she was right.

"I doubt it. I'm already dating Gajeel, and everyone still remembers what happened to the last guy who tried to hit on me… Gajeel's a dragon slayer like Natsu. Let's just say, they can be a tad possessive if you don't keep them in line."

"Oh! I remember Natsu mentioning there were others like him," Lucy said, brazenly lunging for a change in topic, which Levy was gracious enough to allow.

"Yeah, Natsu was raised by a fire dragon, Gajeel by the metal dragon. Then there's a Six—"

"Six?"

"Yeah, year six. We're Eights, remember?"

"Oh, right."

"Anyway, there's a Six named Wendy who was raised by the sky dragon. Then you know Sting and Rogue, they're light and shadow respectively. And then Laxus – he's a Ten – is lightning, but he was never raised by a dragon. Just has some kind of lacrima embedded in him. Same as that Nine, Cobra. But he always gives me the creeps, so I'd stay away from him."

"Right, stay away from the snake," Lucy repeated. "So, did all of their dragons disappear?"

"Yeah," Levy said sadly. "A few years ago. No one seems to know where they went. I didn't even know dragons still existed, but if you see any of them fight it's clear that they're not…normal."

Above them the bell chimed, signaling the changing period.

"Well, got to go! I'll see you later, right?" Levy asked, her voice raised to compensate for the increased bustle in the previously quiet hallways.

"Mmhmm," Lucy hummed happily. "Natsu said he was going to bring me by Fairy Tail after my tutoring today!"

"Oooh fun! You'll love it! You pretty much already know most of us," Levy said with a smile before darting down the hall.

"Shrimp!" a gruff voice called from down the hall. Both girls turned to see a large, surly man with metal studs peppered throughout his face glowering in their direction.

"Oh, that's me! See ya, Lu-chan!" the girl said with a smile as she flitted off to join her rather intimidating boyfriend.

Lucy giggled at the dynamic between the mismatched couple. Clearly this was one of those situations where the phrase "opposites attract" applied.

Lucy continued along to her next class, suddenly uncomfortably aware of how much attention she drew from the male population. She knew she was considered pretty, but she'd never been so openly gawked at before. It was quite off-putting.

She hurried along to her classroom for Herbology and Potion Making. The room was full of small tables that seated two people with a cauldron placed in the center of each one. Lucy sat down at an empty table and pulled out her syllabus, reading over the class description for the thousandth time as if that would somehow impart to her the knowledge needed to not look like a fool. When she heard the stool next to her scrape across the floor, she looked up to see a familiar face settling next to her.

"Hey Luce," Natsu said bashfully as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Sorry about the food earlier."

"Really, Natsu, you're too old to be throwing food around in the first place," she said, pretending to be angry. Of course, keeping up the façade was hard with those pretty green eyes pleading for her forgiveness. She crumbled like a cookie. "But I guess I'll forgive you this time."

Natsu smiled victoriously.

"But don't expect me to go easy on you the next time you fling your meal in my face like a monkey! And you still owe me food after eating all of mine last night," she said with a humph.

"I'll buy you something at the guild later, okay? You are still coming right?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I've got my tutoring again for two hours, but I can come after."

"Cool. Who's tutoring you?"

"Uh, well, I-I'm not exactly supposed to say…" she trailed off, hoping he'd drop it. _Stupid Lucy._

"What do you mean you're not supposed to say? That sounds a bit sketchy, Luce," he said.

"Yajima-san set it up for me. I have two tutors, actually, a different one today than yesterday. Not sure if I was supposed to tell you that… Anyway, the guy yesterday was really nice, and helpful. I already learned a lot," she babbled, trying to avoid revealing too much information to the overly-curious dragon slayer.

"Still, why can't—"

"Hello everyone!" a booming voice interrupted, and they turned their attention to the man – tree? – at the front of the classroom. "I am Professor Warrod, your Herbology and Potion Making professor. HPM for short." He laughed a jolly laugh—at what, the students couldn't really tell.

"Before we begin, I'll be pairing you up with your partner for the rest of the year," he said, eliciting a few grumbles and groans from the students including, Lucy noted, Natsu.

The professor – tree? – lined everyone up along the wall before putting them in their assigned seating. Lucy was a bit nervous to be paired up with someone, especially since she didn't really know any of the other students there except for Natsu, who had already been paired up with a busty blue-haired girl she'd briefly met at lunch and who, if she remembered correctly, had a strange obsession with Natsu's roommate.

"Lucy Starsen!"

Her new name rang across the classroom and she followed the professor's – tree's? – pointing to a seat next to the dark-haired boy she'd recognized hanging around Sting before.

"Rove, is it?" she asked, holding out her hand to greet her new partner.

"Rogue," he said, his voice low and emotionless, but not rudely so.

"Sorry," she quickly apologized, and the corners of his mouth quirked up in what she supposed was a smile.

"No apology needed. I'm sure you've been overloaded with names in the past two days," he said understandingly.

"I'm afraid so. You're in Sabertooth, right? One of the dragon slayers," she said, remembering what Levy had just told her in the hall.

"Yes, I was raised by the shadow dragon, Skiadrum," he said, his red eyes focused on her as the professor-tree-man continued to call out names.

"That must have been remarkable," Lucy said, unabashedly impressed.

He blushed lightly. "In hindsight, I suppose it is. At the time, he was merely my father. I wouldn't realize there was anything remarkable about being raised by a dragon until he was long gone."

"I'm sorry, that must have been horrible," she said, feeling bad about bringing up a sensitive topic.

"It was, but Sabertooth has become my new family, especially since we got rid of that tyrant of a guild master. Have you given much thought to which guild you'll join?" he asked.

"I've been approached by just about everyone, but most of the friends I've made here are from Fairy Tail, so I feel like my destiny is already rather set," Lucy said.

"Sting will never admit it, but Fairy Tail is a strong guild, even if they are a bit…energetic," he said diplomatically.

"That's one way to put it," Lucy giggled, just as the treefessor was calling for their attention to begin the lesson. She shot a quick glance at Natsu, who had an adorable pout on his face and whose eyes – unbeknownst to her – sent a glare at Rogue every few seconds.

When class had come to an end and Lucy packed up her things, she was surprised to hear the shadow dragon slayer speak again.

"I know you're rather set on Fairy Tail, but you should come visit Sabertooth sometime," he said, his red eyes pointedly avoiding hers. "At the very least I'm sure Yukino would love to play with another celestial mage."

Their eyes met and Lucy blushed slightly (something she was getting thoroughly sick of doing) at the sincere look in them, suddenly realizing just how handsome the young dragon slayer was. Was he always that tall and pretty? Surely that couldn't have suddenly changed in the past hour and a half.

"I'd love to," she said happily.

Rogue let out a breath he'd been holding and smiled slightly, not missing the clearly audible huff that Natsu gave from across the room. He looked up and met the fire dragon's challenging stare for a moment before gathering up his things, saying good-bye, and heading to his next class.

Lucy stood, slightly confused by Rogue's sudden exit, before she felt a sudden heat from behind her. She spun to see a pouty Natsu standing rather closer to her than usual.

"You alright there Natsu?" she asked, not too sympathetically.

"It sucks we don't get to be partners," he whined and Lucy shook her head. "I don't know anything about this stuff."

"You realize I don't either, right? If we were partners we'd just be eternally lost," she said, but he didn't seem to buy her reasoning.

"Naw, you're smart. You'd figure it out eventually," he said, waving his hand as if dismissing her idea as they headed into the hallway. "I mean, Juvia's nice and everything, but all she ever talks about is Gray. And then you got stuck with that Saber-toot."

"I don't know what you're talking about! Rogue's nice!"

"Nice-looking…" Natsu mumbled, too low for Lucy to hear.

"What's that?" Lucy asked with an intimidating raised eyebrow that dared him to insult the shadow dragon slayer again.

"Nothing, nothing," Natsu said.

"I don't know what the deal is between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth, but it seems silly."

"The _deal_ is, we're better," Natsu said. "And I refuse to acknowledge that flashlight as a proper guild master."

"Wait—Sting is Sabertooth's guild master?!" Lucy asked in awe, ignoring how she'd just validated Natsu's description of the fellow slayer as a "flashlight". She hadn't thought she could be any more shocked than she had been by everything over the past week, but the universe was intent on proving her wrong time and time again.

" _Technically_ , but as far as I'm concerned he's still a stupid, good-for-nothing—"

"Talking about yourself, flame brain?" Gray said from behind them while Natsu fumed.

"About Sting, actually," Lucy supplemented. "I didn't realize he was a guild master. Is it normal for masters to be that young?"

"Hardly," Gray scoffed. "Pretty sure our old man used to change Zeref's diaper…or at least he's ancient enough. Anyway, there was a big thing about a year ago with the Saber leader going crazy and hurting guild members. Sting stood up to him and ousted the bastard, so the others decided to put him in charge."

"That's impressive," Lucy said, ignoring Natsu's condescending snorts.

"Hardly! If he were so amazing he wouldn't have joined such a crappy guild to start with," Natsu argued.

"Maybe it wasn't exactly a choice. I mean, you always talk about guilds like they're a family. Maybe despite their leader, the others always felt like family. That's why he had to stand up for them," she said reasonably and Natsu grimaced.

"Dammit, Luce, why you gotta go sounding all wise and stuff? Makin' me look bad," he teased.

"Maybe it's because I've been studying. You should give it a try," she teased back. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to be late for Healing."

She ran off to her next class, taught by a sour, pink-haired old woman who seemed unlikely to entertain any nonsense. Lucy made a mental note to always do Professor Porlyuscia's homework first to avoid any chance of incurring her wrath. She paired up with Levy, with whom she giggled as they flipped through their anatomy book.

Lastly was her astronomical magic class again. Apparently the specialized-magic classes were held daily, but luckily they seemed light on the homework besides daily practice routines they were supposed to do. Their professor was some older celestial mage who worked for the magic council and didn't even own any gold keys, something Yukino's sister Angel frequently took time to mock. Lucy thought that was unfair; after all, even Angel couldn't actually _use_ the zodiac keys she had, and as there were only twelve there were hardly enough to go around— especially when Lucy herself owned nearly half of them.

Once classes were complete, she made her way back down to the basement for her tutoring session. All her nervousness for the day before returned full-throttle. Today she'd be training with "Loke", whoever he was, and she was anxious to meet another person. Jellal had made it seem like he could help her with her celestial training, making Lucy wonder if he too was a celestial mage and what keys he owned.

When Lucy arrived at the basement, she was stunned to see a very attractive young man in a suit waiting in the center of the room.

"H-hello? Are you Loke?" Lucy asked timidly as he looked up at her through his sharp glasses.

"Hello, beautiful," he greeted almost sycophantically. "You must be Lucy. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance." He took her hand and kissed it.

Lucy turned bright red, putting her light blushing from earlier to shame, pulling her hand quickly from his grasp. Loke grinned at her in a way that reminded her of a hungry lion—and not hungry for food. Suddenly a loud crash sounded from behind her, and she spun to face the threat now barreling down the stairs with wide, horrified eyes.

 _Oh geez._


	6. Fairy Tail

_Clash. Clang. Thud. Groan._

Lucy spun around, her heart racing as she spotted the intruder. She sighed heavily, almost chastising herself for her surprise. After all, who else would it be?

"Natsu," she groaned frustratedly, sending her new tutor an apologetic look before setting her disapproving gaze on the young man sprawled ungracefully in the doorway, her hands settling on her hips. "I told you I'd meet you _after_ my tutoring. You're not supposed to be here."

Natsu, however, ignored her in favor of glaring at the man standing behind her. "What are _you_ doing here?" he said rudely.

"I'm here to tutor her, of course," Loke answered simply, seemingly unconcerned and (thankfully) unoffended by Natsu's brash manner.

"Tutor her? She's a celestial mage, I doubt _you're_ qualified to help her with anything," Natsu accused.

Lucy turned to see a sly, cat-like grin spread across Loke's face.

"My qualifications are none of your concern, Natsu. Now, if you don't mind, Ms. Hear- ehm- _Starsen_ and I should be starting."

Natsu stood up, his uniform crumpled. "As if I'd leave her with _you,_ you horny bastard," he said in a tone similar to the one he used with Gray.

"You know each other?" Lucy asked.

"He's in Fairy Tail," Natsu explained curtly. "Our resident _playboy._ "

"Just because I appreciate the company of women," Loke huffed indignantly.

"Appreciation? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" Natsu asked teasingly, but Loke didn't even blush.

"I wouldn't expect a dolt like _you_ to understand," he retorted haughtily.

Lucy, having had quite enough of their bickering, interrupted. "Am I just here to watch you two argue or am I actually going to learn something?"

"My apologies, princess," Loke said, and Lucy nearly rolled her eyes.

"Natsu, please," she begged of the stubborn dragon slayer.

"I was going to meet you afterwards anyway. I'll just sit here until you're done!" he said, as if she didn't see right through his intentions.

She sighed, unwilling to endure any more negotiation on the matter, as Natsu settled himself into a corner of the room, his eyes set unblinkingly on Loke.

"So childish," Lucy muttered, and her tutor grinned in agreement. "I am curious, though. If you're not a celestial mage, how to you intend to teach me about celestial magic?"

Loke's smile faltered a bit, a secret darting behind his eyes for only a moment before he answered. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that. Not yet, anyway. But I can assure you that there are few more qualified to help you train than myself."

Though his words were strong, he lacked that arrogant tone that usually accompanied such a boastful comment, so that Lucy felt inclined to believe him. She nodded, accepting his words as the truth for now until he gave her any reason for doubt.

"However, I would prefer if you kept our training sessions private for now. It wouldn't do to have too many people questioning my qualifications, as the pair of you have already done," he said, not angrily. Lucy nodded, the gesture mirrored by the boy in the corner to whom the statement was also addressed.

"Good," he said, his serious tone slipping back into its normal flirtatious lilt. "Show me your keys."

Lucy reached into her bag and extracted her carefully wrapped key ring, all of the shimmering keys displayed as she held them up for him to inspect.

"That's quite a collection. Do you know about them all?" he asked.

"Oh yes!" Lucy was quick to reply. Her keys were her pride and joy, and she could happily talk anyone's ear off about them. "I inherited Aquarius, Capricorn, and Cancer from my mother. All the others I've picked up over the years. My mother was never able to open them, but she always spoke about them as if they were old friends, and told me stories of them that have been passed down through my family."

Another odd look flashed through the man's eyes, one that made him seem far older than he appeared, but it too was soon gone.

"Your mother sounds like a kind woman. And wise too," he said. "Opening the zodiac gates is no easy task. After the Eclipse Gate closed, even fellow mages feared celestial magic, forcing those who practiced it to cease their training. There are no humans alive that remember the lost art of celestial magic, at least, not enough to use it."

His phrasing was strange, peaking Lucy's interest slightly, but she was too concerned with listening to think on it.

"However, understanding the characters of the spirits, as in the stories your mother told you, are a key part of celestial magic. You have opened a few silver gates, yes?"

"Only Nicola," Lucy answered embarrassedly.

"Then you understand the nature of a celestial contract," Loke said. Lucy could hear slight snores already coming from Natsu's corner, and she rolled her eyes.

"Plue and I have a very basic contract, but I suppose I do understand it. At least, I understand its importance. A celestial contract is a binding agreement between a mage and a spirit. If a mage breaks that agreement, the spirit has full authority to cancel the contract altogether. In order for celestial magic to work, both parties have to cooperate. The mage provides the magic that allows the spirit to exist in our realm, while the spirit performs whatever task the mage summons them to do. Without that cooperation, the magic falls apart."

Lucy knew she sounded like she'd just regurgitated her text book, but she was eager to impress with what little knowledge she possessed.

"And what if the spirit defies its master?" Loke asked, his eyes darkening slightly behind his glasses.

"I have never heard of that happening," Lucy admitted, tilting her head to the side. "Does that happen often?"

"Not often, no. It is a violation of the contract, and very detrimental to the spirit. It goes against the fundamental laws of the spirit world, and such actions are punishable by the Spirit King himself. However, it is important to remember that spirits are not just tools for mages to use. They have feelings, thoughts, opinions, and lives of their own. While it is true that they are bound to serve the mage they contract themselves to, if they are treated cruelly, they can be pushed too far."

"That's awful," Lucy said, horrified at the thought of a mage abusing their power like that. Loke smiled at her sincerity.

"Like I said, it doesn't happen often," he repeated.

"I would hope not," Lucy replied, suddenly very angry at the thought. To her, being a celestial mage was a responsibility, and it was her duty to protect her keys, even if she couldn't use them.

After that, Loke launched into an explanation of the twelve zodiac keys in a level of detail intertwined with what seemed like personal experience so deep that Lucy couldn't help but wonder how he knew all of it. It was particularly strange, given that he was a holder mage who used standard ring magic.

Like the day before, the two hours passed with ease, leaving her thirsty for even more information, but she knew that too much wouldn't be good. To her relief, Natsu had snoozed the hours away in the corner quietly. Lucy shook the dragon slayer awake.

"Wake up, sleepy head," she teased, and he jumped up, startled before blushing slightly.

"Was I asleep?" he asked, and Lucy chuckled.

"The whole time," she nodded.

"Well who can blame me? That was really boring," he said. Lucy just shook her head.

"Maybe to you, but I found it fascinating," she said.

"I thought you were supposed to work on your magic, not just talk the whole time," he said grumpily, as if having been denied the proper entertainment he'd been promised.

"We'll work more hands on on Thursday," Loke said from behind them as they made their way to the stairs.

"Oh I know what you wanna put your hands on…" Natsu grumbled slightly, earning a sharp smack to the back of the head from Lucy and a chortle from the other man. "Don't worry though, Luce," he continued, as if she hadn't just hit him reprimandingly, "I'll be here to make sure he doesn't try anything weird."

"Natsu, you really aren't supposed to be here," Lucy whined petulantly.

"I don't mind, Lucy," Loke said. "Natsu might be able to help. After all, we'll need a dummy for you to practice on eventually."

Natsu's eyebrow twitched. "You callin' me a dummy?"

"I'll leave the interpretation up to you," Loke replied snidely.

The two men exchanged scathing insults back and forth as Lucy idly followed them out the school and towards what she could only imagine was the guild. Before long, they arrived at a large, structurally-questionable building with the words "Fairy Tail" scrawled boldly across the front. Lucy felt her heart flutter out of the same nervoxcitement that accompanied her first day at the academy. She'd never been anywhere near a proper mage guild before, though she'd often daydreamed about just this occasion. Even from outside its thick, wooden doors she could hear the loud banter and bustle from inside. She took a deep breath as Natsu wrenched the doors open with ease and stepped inside.

"I'M BACK!" he shouted, as if anyone were particularly interested by that fact. Gray, who sat in only his underwear at a bar, was quick to express this lack of interest on behalf of the guild.

"Nobody cares," he said, causing a round of laughter from the surrounding mages.

"What you babbling about, snowflake?" Natsu asked, running off to instigate a fight with the ice mage.

It wasn't long before the pair of them were rolling around, exchanging punches. Lucy watched in horror as they bumped into a surly looking blonde man with a gnarly scar across his face, who responded with a solid punch of his own. Before Lucy could even comprehend what had happened, half the guild was embroiled in a crazy fight of flying fists, feet, and food. The celestial mage just stood in shock as she took in the scene, which already was so different from anything she'd ever imagined of a mage guild.

"Don't mind them, they'll tire out in a bit," a sweet voice to the side said, drawing Lucy's attention away from the chaotic pile of mages. The voice belonged to a female, seemingly around Lucy's age, with long white hair and the bluest eyes the blonde had ever seen. "You must be Lucy! I've heard so much about you! Come, sit down. I'll get you something to eat, on the house."

Lucy followed the kind girl over to the bar. "Um…what's your name?" Lucy asked a bit awkwardly. The girl giggled.

"I'm sorry, how rude of me! Mirajane Strauss. I'm a Ten at the Academy and Fairy Tail's resident barmaid," she said cheerily as she fixed Lucy a bright pink drink that tasted like strawberries. "My sister Lisanna's in your grade, though I'm not sure if you've met yet…"

The name tickled Lucy's memory, but she'd been so overwhelmed by names and faces over the past few days that she couldn't tell if the recollection was trustworthy or not.

"Anyway, what would you like to eat?" Mirajane asked, handing Lucy a menu.

Lucy scanned it eagerly as her stomach rumbled slightly in anticipation. "How's the Fairy Sandwich?" she asked.

"One of my favourites! It'll be right out," the barmaid said, whisking off to place the order.

Lucy swiveled I her seat to look around the room. The fight was still raging in a whirlwind of testosterone, and she watched amusedly as bystanders would casually duck every once in a while to avoid far flung cups and plates and (occasionally) knives. It all looked distinctly unsafe to Lucy, but at the same time, it felt comfortable.

"You must be Natsu's girl," a voice said, and Lucy spun to see a liberally dressed young woman with long brown hair that matched her mischievous eyes and beautiful tanned skin of which much was on free display. In front of her sat a large wooden barrel that she frequently took large gulps from.

"Lucy," the blonde introduced, choosing to ignore the "Natsu's girl" comment.

"I'm Cana," the brunette said as she shuffled a strange looking deck of cards. She noticed Lucy eyeing them curiously and smirked. "I'm a card mage. The cards tell me truths."

"Truths?"

"The past, present, future. Anything I ask them. I've got a couple tricks up my bra" – for indeed, she had no sleeves – "that I use during combat, but I find their truths the most interesting. No secret is safe from me, girlie," she laughed taking another swig.

Lucy found that both impressive and intimidating. She figured if anyone wanted to hide something from the card mage, they'd have to hide it so well that she didn't even know which questions to ask.

"Want me to do a reading for you?"

The thought both scared and enticed Lucy. She had so many questions that she wanted answered. _Is my father looking for me? Will I ever be able to open the zodiac gates? How does Loke know so much about celestial spirits? Can Zeref really be brought back from the Eclipse Gate?_ The questions had been piling on over the days, and the prospect of answers drew her like a moth to a flame.

Before she could answer, though, she felt a hot presence to her side as Natsu sat down with a stupid grin, bleeding slightly from his forehead.

"Natsu! You're bleeding," Lucy said, quickly taking a napkin and pressing it to the fire slayer's head. He turned slightly pink before drawing back.

"I'll be fine, Luce. Dragon slayers heal quickly. It'll be gone by tomorrow. Gray, on the other hand, will be limping for a week," he said proudly, as if he'd hoped it would impress her.

"In your dreams, brimstone breath," Gray defended as he did actually limp slightly over to the bar.

"Really, you two need to learn to get along. I can't believe you actually live together," Mirajane said, returning with Lucy's sandwich. "Here you are! One Fairy Sandwich, on the house."

"Wait! I was supposed to pay for it!" Natsu said, clearly disappointed.

"You can buy me more groceries to replace the ones you stole," Lucy said before biting into the delicious, warm sandwich.

"Stole? When did Natsu go over to your place?" Gray asked.

"Oh, you didn't hear?" a devious voice said from behind them, belonging to the blue-haired solid-script mage. "Natsu climbed through Lucy's window last night. It was quite the scandal."

"Levy!" Lucy whined, afraid everyone would make more of the incident than was really there. Meanwhile, Natsu's face flushed to match his hair.

"Natsu has a secret love affair? I want details," Cana said excitedly, and Lucy blushed to match Natsu.

"It's not a secret affair!" Lucy protested. "He and that cat of his broke in and ate all my food."

"Really Natsu? That's unromantic, even for you. I think we're gonna have to have _the talk_ ," Gray said.

"No! There will be no need for any talks!" Lucy declared as the other mages began swapping theories of Lucy and Natsu's covert affair.

Just as Lucy realized Natsu was being suspiciously quiet through the whole ordeal, she glanced down to see half of her sandwich stuffed in the fire mage's mouth.

"Natsu!" she screeched, half-considering ripping the sandwich out of his mouth.

He grinned cheekily. "Sowwy," he said before gulping down the food, as if picking things off her plate were some kind of involuntary action like Gray's stripping.

"Now you owe me a kitchen full of groceries _and_ a sandwich," she said threateningly.

"You still have half of it!" he said defensively.

"And I should have a whole!"

"Are you stealing food again, Natsu?" Erza's chilling voice said from the entrance of the guild. The dragon slayer turned slowly in his seat to glance in horror at the requip mage who was now dressed in heavy-looking metal armor.

"O-of course not!" he said.

"Lying too? That's not good," Erza said as she walked forward with heavy, thudding steps. Natsu shivered in fear. "Gray, clothes," she said absently as she passed an exceptionally nude ice mage to stop in front of a nearly trembling dragon slayer.

All at once, Lucy laughed. Not a dainty giggle or childish chuckle, but a big, booming, gut-splitting guffaw that would have elicited her father's feverish disdain. She wasn't even sure what part of it was so funny, but between Gray's constant stripping, Natsu's kleptomaniac-like tendency to devour any food in sight, the way Cana brazenly downed a barrel of mead, Erza's unnecessarily thick armor, and just the general oddity of the Fairy Tail guild, Lucy found herself in stitches.

 _Guilds are like family._

She saw that now in everything. Every teasing remark and friendly brawl felt the way she'd always imagined a family should feel like. It wasn't cold and proper like the mansion she grew up in. It was blazing hot, a messy web of affection constructed by each member, and designed to catch any of them when they fell.

"You're so weird, Luce," Natsu said with a chuckle, as everyone stared at her.

"No weirder than any of you," she laughed, and the others joined in with her as they realized that she was right – there was nothing normal about any of them.

"Join Fairy Tail," Natsu said at last, with a wide grin on his face. All the others quieted down to hear her response.

She wiped away a laughter-tear in her her eye before turning the biggest smile she'd ever produced towards the dragon slayer.

"Okay."


End file.
